`And In The Announcer's Booth . . .'

Our Towns

New Britain

Bristol

July 01, 1994

Blind ambition? You bet. New Britain Red Sox announcer Don Wardlaw made history last week when he became the first blind announcer to broadcast a major league baseball game. Mr. Wardlaw, 31, is an inspiration to others -- both blind and sighted -- by showing that a desire to succeed knows no bounds.

A short man who sports dark glasses and likes to whistle, Mr. Wardlaw has had a passion for the national pastime since he was 9. He and play-by-play announcer Jim Lucas have been covering the Double A Red Sox for two years.

Through a business promotion on the Florida Marlins radio network, Mr. Wardlaw and Mr. Lucas worked an inning and a half of the Marlins- Chicago Cubs game in Miami. Their brief stint in the big time offered what Double A games do not: a large stadium crowd and a big radio audience

Mr. Wardlaw does exhaustive research before each game and uses statistics, biographies on players and anecdotes to augment Mr. Lucas's play-by-play account of the action. Mr. Wardlaw's guidedog ``Gizmo,'' a black Labrador retriever, is usually at his side offering moral support.

Mr. Wardlaw's accomplishment, both in Miami and in New Britain, is notable.

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High school valedictory speeches usually are little more than displays of cliches and platitudes, however earnestly they are composed and delivered by bright young people. But not Victoria Eileen Cosgrove's at Bristol Central High School's graduation ceremony last week. She was witty, frank and true -- and the audience, pleasantly surprised, loved it. At Bristol Central and other high schools, may student commencement speakers take a cue. Be yourself, be natural, be a kid.